Compression of baseband signals in base transceiver systems

ABSTRACT

A signal compression method and apparatus for a base transceiver system (BTS) in a wireless communication network provides efficient transfer of compressed signal samples over serial data links in the system. For the uplink, an RF unit of the BTS compresses baseband signal samples resulting from analog to digital conversion of a received analog signal followed by digital downconversion. The compressed signal samples are transferred over the serial data link to the baseband processor then decompressed prior to normal signal processing. For the downlink, the baseband processor compresses baseband signal samples and transfers the compressed signal samples to the RF unit. The RF unit decompresses the compressed samples prior to digital upconversion and digital to analog conversion to form an analog signal for transmission over an antenna. Compression and decompression can be incorporated into operations of conventional base stations and distributed antenna systems, including OBSAI or CPRI compliant systems.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to compression and decompression ofsignals in a transceiver system of a wireless communication network and,more particularly, to compressing baseband signal samples prior totransfer over a serial data link between a base station processor andone or more radio frequency (RF) units of the transceiver system.

Transceiver systems in wireless communication networks perform thecontrol functions for directing signals among communicating subscribers,or terminals, as well as communication with external networks. Thegeneral operations include receiving RF signals, converting them tosignal data, performing various control and signal processing operationson the signal data, converting the signal data to an RF signal andtransmitting the RF signal to the wireless subscriber. Transceiversystems in wireless communications networks include base stations anddistributed antenna systems (DAS). For the reverse link, or uplink, aterminal transmits the RF signal received by the transceiver system. Forthe forward link, or downlink, the transceiver system transmits the RFsignal to a subscriber, or terminal, in the wireless network. A basestation may also be called a base transceiver system (BTS), cell site,access point, Node B, or other terminology. A terminal may be fixed ormobile and may be a wireless device, cellular phone, personal digitalassistant (PDA), personal computer or any device equipped with awireless modem.

For this description, the term base transceiver system (BTS) will referto the base station processor(s) and the RF unit(s) in communicationwith and under the control of the base station processor, including anytype or length of data transfer link. This includes the traditional basestation having the RF units collocated with the base station processoror on the antenna tower near the antenna. A DAS is another example of aBTS, although the RF units are remote from the base station processor.

The base transceiver systems of wireless communication networks mustmanage the increasing amounts of data required for offering new servicesto an expanding subscriber base. System design challenges includeensuring flexibility for evolving standards, supporting growing dataprocessing requirements and reducing overall cost. The modular designapproach for base stations provides the flexibility to meet thesechallenges. The components of modular base station designs include basestation processors and RF units coupled by serial data links, comprisedof copper wire or fiber optic cabling. The RF units includetransmitters, receivers, analog to digital converters (ADCs) and digitalto analog converter (DACs). Wire or fiber optic serial data linkstransfer the sampled signals between the RF units and the base stationprocessor. The sampled signals may be centered at the RF or converted toan intermediate frequency (IF) or baseband prior to transfer over thedata link. The base station processor includes functions for signalprocessing, control and communication with external networks.

Two industry standards for modular designs, the Open Base StationArchitecture Initiative (OBSAI) and Common Public Radio Interface(CPRI), specify architectures for interconnection of RF modules and basestation processors as well as data transfer protocols for the serialdata links. The OBSAI standard is described in the documents, “OBSAIOpen Base Station Architecture Initiative BTS System ReferenceDocument”, Version 2.0, 2006, and “OBSAI Open Base Station ArchitectureInitiative Reference Point 3 Specification”, Version 4.0, 2007. The CPRIstandard is described in the document, “CPRI Specification V3.0Interface Specification”, 2006. Both architectures transmit/receivemultichannel signal data and transfer multiplexed baseband signal dataover the serial data link. Modular designs may not necessarily complywith CPRI or OBSAI.

The OBSAI standard describes architectures and protocols forcommunication between base station processors, referred to as basebandmodules, and RF modules. Connection topologies for one or more basebandmodules and one or more RF modules include mesh, centralizedcombiner/distributor and bridge modules. The OBSAI compliant serial datalink connecting the baseband module and the RF module is referred to asthe reference point 3 (RP3) interface. In systems where remote RF units(RRUs) are connected to a baseband module, the serial data link isreferred to as the RP3-01 interface. Connection topologies for thebaseband module and RRUs include point-to-point, chain, ring andtree-and-branch. The baseband module/RRUs configurations supportdistributed antenna systems.

The CPRI standard refers to radio equipment control (REC) for processingbaseband signal data and the radio equipment (RE) that performs the RFprocessing for transmission of signals over the antenna. The REC and REcorrespond to the base station processor and the RF unit, respectively.The CPRI standard specifies the serial interface and operations at thephysical and data link layers. The serial data link between REC and RE,or between two REs, is a bidirectional interface with one transmissionline per direction. Connection topologies between the REC and one ormore REs include point-to-point, multiple point-to-point, chain, star,tree, ring and combinations thereof.

Distributed antenna systems (DAS) distribute signal data from a mainantenna/RF resource to multiple remote antennas connected via Cat5cable, coaxial cable or fiber optic links. In essence, a DAS can connectto a variety of wireless services and then rebroadcast those signalsthroughout the areas in which the DAS is installed. For example, a DAScan improve cell phone coverage within a building. A main transceiverand antenna on the roof of the building is connected by cable or fiberto multiple distributed antennas within the building. Every DAS has a“head end” into which source signals are combined for distribution toremote radio units. The DAS systems provide coverage in confined spacessuch as high rise buildings, tunnels, railways, and airports. As definedby the DAS Forum of the Personal Communications Industry Association(PCIA), a DAS is a network of spatially separated antenna nodesconnected to a common source via a transport medium that provideswireless service within a geographic area or structure. The DAS antennaelevations are generally at or below the clutter level and nodeinstallations are compact. A digital serial data link connects the headend (base station) to remote radio units, or heads.

Base transceiver systems for wireless communication networks transferlarge amounts of sampled signal data over the serial data links betweenthe base station processor and the RF modules. The need to comply withevolving wireless communication standards, increase data volume andserve more subscribers, may require expensive hardware upgrades totransceiver systems, including increasing the number or capacity ofserial data links and increasing the data processing capability ofsupporting subsystems. These requirements can conflict with constraintson transceiver systems, including physical size limitations, powerconsumption limitations and geographic restrictions.

Therefore, there is a need for increasing the capacity of serial datalinks and conserving the resources of base transceiver systems for basestations and distributed antenna systems. Compression of data prior totransfer over the serial data links enables the provider to meet theseneeds by increasing the capacity of existing data links, possiblyeliminating or at least postponing, the need to upgrade the existingdata links. Computationally efficient compression and decompressionconserves computing resources. The OBSAI and CPRI standards do notdisclose compressing signal samples prior to transfer over the serialdata links. Therefore, there is also a need for providing compressingsignal samples and formatting the compressed samples for compatibilitywith the data transfer protocols of the BTS.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Embodiments of the present invention have been made in consideration ofthe foregoing conventional problems. An object of the present inventionis to increase the data transfer capacity of serial data linksconnecting a base station processor to an RF unit in a base transceiversystem of a wireless communication network.

To realize the foregoing object, one aspect of the present inventionprovides, in a base transceiver system of a wireless communicationnetwork, a method for transferring signal data from a radio frequency(RF) unit to a baseband processor over a serial data link, wherein theRF unit is connected to an antenna to receive an analog signal, theanalog signal representing a plurality of antenna-carrier channels, theRF unit including an analog to digital converter (ADC) that converts theanalog signal to a digital signal and a digital down converter (DDC)that downconverts the digital signal to a plurality of basebandchannels, each baseband channel corresponding to one of theantenna-carrier channels and having a sequence of signal samples,wherein each signal sample includes an in-phase (I) sample and aquadrature (Q) sample wherein the baseband processor performs signalprocessing operations on the signal samples received from the RF unit.The method comprises:

-   -   compressing the signal samples of each baseband channel at the        RF unit to form compressed samples in accordance with a        compression control parameter, wherein each compressed sample        includes a compressed I sample and a compressed Q sample;    -   formatting the compressed samples for transfer over the serial        data link;    -   transferring the compressed samples over the serial data link        from the RF unit to the baseband processor;    -   receiving the compressed samples at the baseband processor; and    -   decompressing the compressed samples corresponding to each        baseband channel in accordance with a decompression control        parameter to form decompressed signal samples of the        corresponding baseband channel, wherein each decompressed signal        sample includes a decompressed I sample and a decompressed Q        sample, wherein the baseband processor applies the signal        processing operations to the decompressed signal samples for        each baseband channel.

Another aspect of the present invention that realizes the foregoingobject provides, in a base transceiver system of a wirelesscommunication network, a method for transferring signal samples from abaseband processor to a radio frequency (RF) unit over a serial datalink, each signal sample associated with one of a plurality of basebandchannels, wherein each signal sample includes an in-phase (I) sample anda quadrature (Q) sample, the RF unit including a digital up converter(DUC) that upconverts a sequence of signal samples of each basebandchannel to a corresponding one of a plurality of antenna-carrierchannels to form a single upconverted digital signal and a digital toanalog converter (DAC) that converts the upconverted digital signal toan analog signal, wherein the RF unit is coupled to an antenna totransmit the analog signal, the analog signal representing the pluralityof antenna-carrier channels. The method comprises:

-   -   compressing the signal samples corresponding to each baseband        channel at the baseband processor to form compressed samples in        accordance with a compression control parameter wherein each        compressed sample includes a compressed I sample and a        compressed Q sample;    -   formatting the compressed samples for transfer over the serial        data link;    -   transferring the compressed samples over the serial data link        from the baseband processor to the RF unit;    -   receiving the compressed samples at the RF unit; and    -   decompressing the compressed samples in accordance with a        decompression control parameter to form decompressed signal        samples corresponding to each baseband channel, wherein each        decompressed sample includes a decompressed I sample and a        decompressed Q sample, wherein the decompressed signal samples        are provided to the DUC for forming the upconverted digital        signal.

Another aspect of the present invention that realizes the foregoingobject provides, in a base transceiver system of a wirelesscommunication network, including a radio frequency (RF) unit coupled toan antenna to receive an analog signal and a baseband processor coupledto the RF unit by a serial data link, the analog signal representing aplurality of antenna-carrier channels, the RF unit including an analogto digital converter (ADC) that converts the analog signal to a digitalsignal and a digital down converter (DDC) that downconverts the digitalsignal to a plurality of baseband channels, each baseband channelcorresponding to one of the antenna-carrier channels and having asequence of signal samples, wherein each signal sample includes anin-phase (I) sample and a quadrature (Q) sample wherein the basebandprocessor performs signal processing operations on the signal samplesreceived from the RF unit, an apparatus for data transfer from the RFunit to the baseband processor over the serial data link. The apparatuscomprises:

-   -   a plurality of compressors at the RF unit, each compressor        coupled to receive the signal samples of a corresponding        baseband channel output from the DDC and producing compressed        samples in accordance with a compression control parameter,        wherein each compressed sample includes a compressed I sample        and a compressed Q sample;    -   a formatter coupled to the plurality of compressors and        formatting the compressed samples in accordance with a data        transfer protocol;    -   the serial data link coupled to the formatter for transferring        the compressed samples to the baseband processor;    -   the baseband processor coupled to the serial data link to        receive the compressed samples; and    -   a plurality of decompressors integrated into the baseband        processor, each decompressor receiving the compressed samples of        the corresponding baseband channel and forming decompressed        signal samples in accordance with a decompression control        parameter, wherein each decompressed signal sample includes a        decompressed I sample and a decompressed Q sample, wherein the        baseband processor performs the signal processing operations on        the decompressed signal samples for each baseband channel.

Another aspect of the present invention that realizes the foregoingobject provides, in a base transceiver system of a wirelesscommunication network, including a radio frequency (RF) unit coupled toan antenna to transmit an analog signal and a baseband processor coupledto the RF unit by a serial data link, the baseband processor providing aplurality of signal samples to the RF unit, each signal sampleassociated with one of a plurality of baseband channels, wherein eachsignal sample includes an in-phase (I) sample and a quadrature (Q)sample, the RF unit including a digital up converter (DUC) thatupconverts a sequence of signal samples of each baseband channel to acorresponding one of a plurality of antenna-carrier channels to form asingle upconverted digital signal and a digital to analog converter(DAC) that converts the upconverted digital signal to the analog signal,the analog signal representing the plurality of antenna-carrierchannels, an apparatus for data transfer from the baseband processor tothe RF unit. The apparatus comprises:

-   -   a plurality of compressors integrated into the baseband        processor, each compressor compressing signal samples of a        corresponding baseband channel in accordance with a compression        control parameter to form compressed samples, wherein each        compressed sample includes a compressed I sample and a        compressed Q sample;    -   a formatter coupled to the plurality of compressors and        formatting the compressed samples in accordance with a data        transfer protocol;    -   the serial data link coupled to the formatter for transferring        the compressed samples to the RF unit;    -   the RF unit coupled to the serial data link to receive the        compressed samples; and    -   a plurality of decompressors at the RF unit, each decompressor        receiving compressed samples of the corresponding baseband        channel and forming decompressed signal samples, wherein each        decompressed signal sample includes a decompressed I sample and        a decompressed Q sample, wherein the decompressed signal samples        are provided to the DUC for forming the upconverted digital        signal.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 a is a block diagram of a general base station architecture thatincorporates compression and decompression.

FIG. 1 b is a block diagram of an example of a distributed antennasystem (DAS) including compression and decompression.

FIG. 2 a is a block diagram of compression and decompression in a basestation modeled after OBSAI standard.

FIG. 2 b is a block diagram of compression and decompression in an OBSAIcompliant BTS having remote RF units.

FIG. 2 c is a table of the wireless modulation formats supported by theOBSAI standard, in accordance with the prior art.

FIG. 3 a is a block diagram of compression and decompression in a basestation modeled after the CPRI standard.

FIG. 3 b shows a radio base station system 300 where the REC 320 andmultiple radio equipments 310 a and 310 b are connected in a chainarrangement via data transfer links 340 a and 340 b.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of compression and decompression wheremultiple signal channels are compressed and multiplexed before transferover a serial data link.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example of mapping a compressed data packet to thepayload portion of an RP3 message.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example of mapping a compressed data packet to anEthernet MAC frame and then to RP3 messages.

FIG. 7 is a table showing three numerical examples for mappingcompressed data to Ethernet payloads.

FIG. 8 shows an example of mapping compressed data packets for transferaccording to the CPRI protocol.

FIG. 9 a is a block diagram of the compressor at the baseband unit.

FIG. 9 b is a block diagram of the compressor at the RF unit.

FIG. 10 a is a block diagram of the decompressor at the RF unit.

FIG. 10 b is a block diagram of the decompressor at the baseband unit.

FIG. 11 gives examples that illustrate principles underlyingalternatives for compressing signal samples with different centerfrequencies.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram of a compression algorithm based on thecenter frequency signal samples.

FIG. 13 shows the operations that produce modified sample based on thecenter frequency.

FIG. 14 gives the sums or differences of signal samples x(i) and x(i−j)for the examples of FIG. 11.

FIG. 15 is a block diagram of the operations performed by thedecompressor.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following describes how compression and decompression areincorporated into base transceiver systems in accordance with thepresent invention. Example architectures include compression anddecompression in a general base station, OBSAI or CPRI base stations anddistributed antenna systems. The preferred methods for compression anddecompression applied to the signal samples processed by the transceiversystems are then described.

FIG. 1 a is a block diagram of a general base station architecture thatincorporates compression and decompression in accordance with thepresent invention. The BTS architecture includes the base stationprocessor 100 connected by one or more serial data links 140 to a RFunit 150. This general architecture can be used for any air interfacestandard employed by wireless communication network, including GSM/EDGE,CDMA based modulation formats, OFDM based modulation formats such asWiMax and other signal modulation formats that may evolve. The remote RFunit 150 can be located near the antenna 155 on an antenna tower. The RFunit 150 can be connected to multiple antennas for transmission,reception, diversity or beamforming. The serial data link 140 can beimplemented by fiber optic, coaxial cable or RJ-45 twisted pair. Thebase station processor 100 performs signal processing functions toprepare data for transmission by the RF unit 150 or recover data fromsignal samples received from the RF unit 150. The types of functionsinclude symbol modulation/demodulation, channel encoding/decoding,spreading/despreading for CDMA, diversity processing fortransmission/reception, interference cancellation, equalization, timeand frequency synchronization, upconverting/downconverting,multiplexing/demultiplexing and data transport to/from an externalnetwork (not shown).

For the transmit path, or downlink, the base station processor 100performs the signal processing functions to modulate communication datathat were extracted from previously received wireless signals orreceived from an external network to produce digital signals. The signalprocessing functions depend on the modulation format and can includesymbol modulation, channel coding, spreading for CDMA, diversityprocessing for transmission, time and frequency synchronization,upconverting, multiplexing, and inverse discrete Fourier transformationfor OFDM. The digital signals may have a center frequency of 0 Hz, anintermediate frequency (IF) or a radio frequency (RF), depending on thesystem design. The compressor 120 compresses the samples of the digitalsignal prior to transfer over a serial data link 140 to the RF unit 150.At the RF unit 150, the decompressor 125 decompresses the compressedsamples to reconstruct the digital signal before digital to analogconversion. The digital to analog converter (DAC) 160 converts thereconstructed digital signal to an analog signal. The transmitter 182prepares the analog signal for transmission by the antenna 155,including up-conversion to the appropriate radio frequency, RF filteringand amplification.

For the receive path, or uplink, antenna 155 at the RF unit 150 receivesan RF analog signal representing modulated communication data from oneor more wireless sources, or subscribers. The frequency band of thereceived signal can be a composite of transmitted signals from multiplewireless subscribers. Depending on the air interface protocol, thedifferent subscriber signals can be assigned to certain frequencychannels or multiple subscribers can be assigned to a particularfrequency band. In the case of CDMA air interface protocols, themultiple subscriber signals are assigned to a particular frequency bandand each subscriber signal is spread across the band using a uniquespreading code. The receiver 180 performs analog operations on the RFanalog signal, including RF filtering, amplification and down-conversionto shift the center frequency of the received signal from RF to an IF or0 Hz, depending on system design The analog to digital converter (ADC)170 converts the received analog signal to a digital signal to producesignal samples that have only real values or, alternatively, have inphase (I) and quadrature (Q) components, based on system design. Thecompressor 130 is applied to the entire bandwidth of the digital signaloutput from the ADC 170. The compressor 130 compresses the digitalsignal samples before transmission over the serial data link 140. At thebase station processor 100, the decompressor 135 decompresses thecompressed samples to reconstruct the digital signal prior to performingthe normal signal processing to recover communication data from thedecompressed digital signal. The processing operations can includedemodulating symbols, channel decoding, despreading (for CDMA modulationformats), diversity processing, interference cancelling, equalizing,time and frequency synchronization, downconverting, demultiplexing,discrete Fourier transformation (for OFDM modulation formats) andtransporting data derived from the decompressed signal samples to anexternal network.

The base station processor 100 and RF unit 150 may be referred to byother names in the art and do not limit scope of the present invention,as described in the claims.

FIG. 1 b is a block diagram of an example of a distributed antennasystem (DAS). The base station processor 100 is connected to a pluralityof remote RF units 150 and their associated antennas 155. The DAS canhave a plurality of remote RF units 150 that typically are located tensto hundreds of meters from the base station processor 100. The basestation processor 100 is part of a main transceiver system, such as theBTS shown in FIG. 1 a, that typically has collocated RF. The maintransceiver may be located on the roof of a building, for example. Eachremote RF unit 150 includes a compressor 130, decompressor 125, ADC 170,DAC 160, transmitter 182 and receiver 180, although these components arerepresented in only one remote RF unit 150 for simplicity. In thisexample, the base station processor 100 is connected to the remote RFunits 150 via a hub 146. The hub 146 is then connected via data link 142to another hub 148 or via links 144 to a plurality of remote RF units150. These data links 140,142 and 144 may have identical characteristicsor may be different depending on the system design. For the transmitpath, the base station processor 100 applies the compressor 120 tocompress signal samples. The compressed samples are transferred via datalink 140 to the hub 146, via data link 142 to another hub 148 and viadata links 144 to a plurality of remote RF units 150. Compressed datacan remain compressed when passing through the hubs 146 and 148. At eachremote RF unit 150, the decompressor 125 decompresses the signal beforedigital to analog conversion 160. The transmitter 182 processes theresulting analog signal for transmission via antenna 155. For thereceive path at each remote RF unit 150, each antenna 155 provides ananalog signal to the receiver 180. The ADC 170 converts the receivedanalog signal to a digital signal. The compressor 130 compresses thedigital signal before transfer via the appropriate data link 140, 142 or144 and hubs 148 and 146 to the base station processor 100. Thedecompressor 135 decompresses the compressed signal samples toreconstruct the received digital signal before conventional signalprocessing by the base station processor 100. Distributed antennasystems may transfer IF or RF digital signals over the data links 140,142 and 144, as described with respect to FIG. 1 a, or may transferdigital baseband signals as further described in the following.

The compressor 120/130 packs the compressed samples in compressed datapackets having a format compatible with the data transfer protocol ofthe serial data link. The compressor 120/130 adds a header portion tosome or all of compressed data packets. Alternatively, the header can beencoded in overhead bits, if available for the data transfer protocol.The header portion has a defined length and includes synchronization andcontrol information for the decompressor 125/135. The compressor 120/130may pack the compressed samples in any order; however the decompressor125/135 will reorder and format the decompressed samples to comply withthe data representation format expected by the BTS. The serial data linkmay have a proprietary data transfer protocol or a standard protocol,such as Ethernet. The compressed data packet size is set to accommodatethe data transfer protocol. For example, for transfer in an Ethernet MACframe, the compressed data packet can be sized to fit into the payloadportion, as described below with respect to FIGS. 6 and 7. Thedecompressor 125/135 receives Ethernet MAC frame and extracts thecompressed data packet from the payload portion. The decompressor125/135 extracts the synchronization and control information from theheader for decompressing and reconstructing the sequence of signalsamples.

FIG. 2 a is a block diagram of compression and decompression in a basestation modeled after OBSAI standard. The OBSAI standard specifiesprocessing and transfer of baseband I and Q signal samples. The basestation 200 includes a baseband module 210 and a RF module 250 connectedvia one or more RP3 serial data links 240. There can be multiplebaseband modules 210 in communication with multiple RF modules 250. TheOBSAI architecture supports the air interface standards for GSM/EDGE,CDMA, WCDMA and WiMax for fixed or mobile access having configurationslisted in Table 1 of FIG. 2 c. The OBSAI standard can also accommodateother wireless network configurations or signal modulation formats byincorporating general purpose modules. The baseband module 210 performssignal processing functions on baseband signal data appropriate for themodulation format. The signal processing functions can include symbolmodulation/demodulation, channel coding/decoding, spreading/despreading,diversity processing for transmission/reception, interferencecancellation, equalization, time and frequency synchronization,inverse/forward discrete Fourier transform, as appropriate for the airinterface standard or other modulation format, and data transportto/from an external network (not shown). The RF module 250 may containtransmit functionality only, receive functionality only, or bothtransmit and receive functionalities. The OBSAI RF module functionsinclude ADC/DAC, up/down conversion, carrier selection, antennainterface, Tx/Rx RF filtering, RF combining, diversity Tx/Rx and airinterface functions. Options for the serial data links 240 include fiberoptic cable, copper cable or wireless transmission. The RP3 bus protocoldefines the data format and line coding for data transfer. Both thebaseband module 210 and the RF module 250 format the compressed data fortransfer in accordance with the RP3 bus protocol.

For the transmit path, or downlink, the baseband module 210 performsvarious functions on communication data appropriate for the modulationformat to generate baseband signal samples 241. The functions caninclude symbol modulation, channel coding, spreading, transmit diversityprocessing and inverse discrete Fourier transform as appropriate for theOBSAI supported or other signal modulation format. The compressor 120compresses signal samples 241 before transfer via the serial data link240 to the RF Module 250. At the RF module 250, the decompressor 125decompresses the compressed samples to form decompressed signal samples242 prior to the normal processing for RF transmission.

For the receive path, or uplink, the antenna 155 receives analog RFsignals representing modulated communication data from the subscribers.The operations of the RF module 250 to form the baseband digital signalsamples 243 will be described in more detail below with respect to FIG.4. The compressor 130 compresses the digital signal samples 243 prior totransfer via serial data link 240 to the baseband module 210. At thebaseband module 210, the decompressor 135 decompresses the compressedsamples to form decompressed signal samples 244. The baseband module 210then applies the signal processing appropriate for the modulation formatto the decompressed signal samples. The signal processing functions caninclude symbol demodulation, channel decoding, despreading, receivediversity processing, interference cancellation, equalization, time andfrequency synchronization, forward discrete Fourier transform, asappropriate for the air interface standard or other modulation format.Although FIG. 2 a depicts a point-to-point arrangement other connectionarrangements are possible, including mesh topologies, bridge connectionsand combiner/distributor connections.

FIG. 2 b is a block diagram of compression and decompression in an OBSAIcompliant BTS having remote RF units. In this example, the base station200 is connected to two remote RF units (RRUs) 260-1 and 260-2. Theserial data links 250-1 and 250-2 comply with the RP3-01 serial datalink protocol as defined by the OBSAI specification. The RP3-01 protocolextends the RP3 protocol to accommodate physical layer technologiessuitable for transporting data over longer physical links. A localconverter (LC), implemented as a separate module or integrated with theBTS 200 or RRU 260, maps data to the RP3-01 data format. The RP3-01protocol uses the Ethernet MAC frames in accordance with the standardIEEE 802.3-2002. A point-to-point Ethernet transfer is applied betweenthe RP3-01 nodes, whether between RRUs 260-1 and 260-2 or between BTS200 and RRU 260-1. The RRU 260-1 includes an Ethernet switch thatdetermines whether a data frame is consumed at that RRU 260-1 orforwarded to the RRU 260-2. For the transmit paths, the baseband module210 compresses the payload signal data prior to transfer over the datalink 250-1 in accordance with the RP3-01 protocol. If the RRU 260-1 isthe destination node, the RRU 260-1 decompresses the compressed dataprior to processing for RF transmission from antenna 255-1. If the RRU260-2 is the destination node, the RRU 260-1 passes the data frame withthe compressed payload data over link 250-2 to RRU 260-2. The RRU 260-2decompresses the compressed payload data for transmission from antenna255-2. For the receive paths, the RRUs 260-1 and 260-2 compress theirrespective received signal samples and format the compressed signal datafor transfer in accordance with RP3-01 protocol. The baseband module 210decompresses the compressed signal data received from the RRUs 260-1 and260-2 prior to the normal baseband operations. The RRU 260-1 will passthe data frames it received from RRU 260-2 to the BTS 200 withoutdecompressing the payload data.

FIG. 3 a is a block diagram of compression and decompression in a basestation modeled after the CPRI standard. The CPRI standard specificallysupports UTRA/FDD standard (Universal Terrestrial Radio Access/FrequencyDivision Duplex, uses WCDMA modulation format) and WiMax standard(IEEE802.16-2004 and IEEE802.16e-2005) but can also be used for otherair interface modulation formats. In the CPRI model, the radio basestation system 300 includes the radio equipment control (REC) 320 andthe radio equipment (RE) 310. These two components are connected viaserial data links 340 comprising bidirectional links using wire or fiberoptic media. The REC 320 performs signal processing functions onbaseband signal samples, including channel coding/decoding,interleaving, spreading/dispreading (UTRA/FDD) and inverse/forwarddiscrete Fourier transform (WiMax). The RE functions prepare signalsamples for the air interface or generate signal samples from thereceived analog signal, including ADC/DAC, up/down conversion, carriermultiplexing/demultiplexing, Tx/Rx amplification and RF filtering. TheRE 310 is connected to one or more antennas 155. The CPRI standardindicates 1, 2 or 6 antennas per RE with 1-4 carriers per antenna.

For the transmit path, or downlink, from the REC 320, the compressor 120compresses signal samples 341 a before transfer via the serial data link340 to the RE 310. At the RE 310, the decompressor 125 decompresses thecompressed signal data to produce decompressed signal samples 342 a. Thedecompressed signal samples 342 a are further processed for transmissionover antenna 155. For the receive path, or uplink, the RE 310 processessignals received by the antenna 155 to form baseband digital signalsamples 343 a. The compressor 130 compresses the samples before transfervia the serial data link 340. At the REC 320, the decompressor 135decompresses the received compressed samples to form decompressedsamples 244 a. The REC 320 performs the normal processing functions onthe decompressed samples 244 a. The functions of the RE 310 and REC 320are further described below with respect to FIG. 4. FIG. 3 a shows apoint-to-point link between the REC 320 and the RE 310. Other topologiesinclude multiple point-to-point links between REC 320 and RE 310 andmultiple point-to-point links between one REC 320 and more than one RE310. FIG. 3 b shows a radio base station system 300 where the REC 320and multiple radio equipments 310 a and 310 b are connected in a chainarrangement via data transfer links 340 a and 340 b. Other topologieswhere REs connect to each other include tree, ring, and star.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of compression and decompression wheremultiple signal channels are compressed and multiplexed before transferover a serial data link. Both OBSAI and CPRI transceivers receive andtransmit multiple frequency channels of signal samples for eachindependent antenna, or multiple antenna-carriers. In this example,there are four channels of signal samples representing fourantenna-carriers. The signal samples comprise baseband I and Q samples.For the transmit path, each compressor 120 i in the baseband unit 110independently compresses a stream of baseband I,Q signal samples to formcorresponding streams of compressed samples. The multiplexer 420multiplexes the compressed samples into a single serial data stream fortransfer over serial data link 430 in accordance with the standard. Atthe RF unit 150, the demultiplexer 440 demultiplexes the serial datastream to recover the four streams of compressed samples in accordancewith the standard. Each decompressor 125 i decompresses one stream ofcompressed samples to reconstruct the corresponding baseband I,Q signalsamples. The digital upconverter (DUC) 461 upconverts each stream ofdecompressed signal samples to respective carrier frequencies to form achannelized signal. Each upconverted digital signal occupies aparticular channel of the resulting channelized signal. The DAC 460converts the channelized signal to an analog signal. The transmitter 480converts the analog signal to the appropriate RF frequency fortransmission by the antenna 155. For the receive path, the receiver 482receives the RF signal and the ADC 470 digitizes the received signal toproduce a digital signal that represents a channelized signal data asdescribed for the transmit path. The digital down converter (DDC) 471downconverts each channel to form corresponding streams of baseband I,Qsignal samples, one for each channel. The compressor 130 i compressesits input signal samples to form compressed samples. The multiplexer 421multiplexes the streams of compressed samples output from thecompressors to form a serial data stream in accordance with the OBSAI orCPRI standards. The serial data stream is transferred via the serialdata link 430 to the baseband unit 110. The demultiplexer 441demultiplexes the serial data to restore the four streams of compressedsamples. Each decompressor 135 i reconstructs the corresponding I,Qsignal samples prior to the normal operations by the baseband processor410.

The compressors 120 i and 130 i organize the compressed samples intocompressed data packets compatible with the OBSAI, CPRI or otherprotocols. The compressed data packets represent compressed I and Qsamples. The order of the compressed samples may be sequentialinterlaced compressed I and Q samples, i.e. (I₁ Q₁ I₂ Q₂ . . . I_(N)Q_(N)). Alternatively, the order of the compressed I and Q samples mayhave blocks of compressed I samples followed by blocks of compressed Qsamples, i.e. (I₁ I₂ . . . I_(N) Q₁ Q₂ . . . Q_(N)). The compressors 120i/130 i operate on blocks of consecutive input signal samples having alength of BLOCK_SIZE. The compressor 120 i/130 i compresses BLOCK_SIZEconsecutive samples and forms a compressed data packet.

A useful BLOCK_SIZE is 192, although other block sizes can be used. Theblock size of 192 samples provides for simple double-buffered inputblocks for field programmable gate arrays (FPGA). A smaller block size,such as 4 to 8 samples, can be implemented to meet the more stringentlatency requirements of the OBSAI and CPRI specifications. To meet alatency specification, the block size in samples should span a timeperiod that is less than or equal to half the allowable latency period.This assumes that half of the latency is consumed for compression andthe other half for decompression. For example, the CPRI specifies anallowable latency period of 5 μsec. For the UTRA-FDD signal formathaving one sample per chip at a chip rate of 3.84 MHz, the allowablelatency of 5 μsec. spans about 19 sample intervals. A block size of 4samples will have a latency period of 8 sample intervals which is wellwithin the allowable latency period for CPRI.

The compressor 120 i/130 i may add a header portion to some or all ofthe compressed data packets. The header portion has a defined length,for instance 16 bits. Alternatively, the header information can placedin overhead fields of the OBSAI or CPRI message format. In analternative for OBSAI, header information can be encoded using unusedcodes of an OBSAI message's TYPE field. In an alternative for CPRI,header information can be encoded in stuffing bits of the basic frame.The compressor 120 i/130 i provides the compressed data packet to thepayload portion of the OBSAI or CPRI message format. The decompressor125 i/135 i receives the OBSAI or CPRI message and extracts thecompressed data packet from the payload portion. The decompressor 125i/135 i uses the header to extract control parameters for decompressionand to establish compressed data packet synchronization. Thedecompressor 125 i/135 i reconstructs the sequence of I, Q signalsamples in the I and Q sample order, byte order and data formatspecified by the OBSAI, CPRI or other protocol. Control messages used byOBSAI or CPRI are not compressed.

The OBSAI standard's RP3 and RP3-01 bus protocols include featuresuseful for transfer of compressed data packets. The OBSAI applicationlayer message format has a fixed size of 19 bytes, or 152 bits,including 3 bytes allocated for address/type/timestamp and 16 bytes, or128 bits, allocated for payload. The type fields include W-CDMA/FDD,W-CDMA/TDD, 802.16, LTE and Ethernet. A compressed data packet can beset to a length of 128 bits to fit the payload portion. The OBSAIphysical layer applies 8b10b encoding to each byte of the message,including the payload, prior to transfer over the data link. The RP3protocol defines a message group that includes up to 65,536 messages andup to 20 idle bytes and a frame including up to an integer multipletimes 65,536 consecutive message groups, where the integer multiple is1, 2 or 4. The integer multiple relates the frame length in bits to thedata transfer rate of the serial data links of 768 Mbps (i=1), 1536 Mbps(i=2) and 3072 Mbps (i=4). The time interval for a frame is fixed at 10msec. FIG. 5 illustrates an example of mapping a compressed data packetto the payload portion 522 of an RP3 message 520. The type field 524indicates the data type of the signal samples, for example W-CDMA/FDD.The address 526 is used for routing at the transport layer. Thetransport layer function includes the message multiplexer 528 thatmultiplexes RP3 message 520 with other RP3 messages (not shown) inaccordance with the system configuration and routing requirements. Atthe data link layer, the message group formatter 530 assigns multiplemessages to message slots and adds control data and idle bytes to form amessage group. At the physical layer, the 8b10b encoder 540 encodes eachbyte to 10 bits to form a portion of the bit stream for transfer overthe serial data link. Referring to FIG. 4, for OBSAI systems, themultiplexers 420 and 421 perform the functions described with respect toFIGS. 5 and 6 on the compressed data packets 510 from each group ofcompressors 120 i and 130 i. For OBSAI systems, the demultiplexers 440and 441 perform the inverse operations, including 8b10b decoding,message demultiplexing and extracting the payload data from the RP3message 520 to retrieve the compressed data packet 510. For the exampleof FIG. 6, the payload data from the Ethernet MAC frame 550 isreassembled from the payload data from RP3 packets 630-1 to 630-n. Thecompressed data packet 510 is retrieved from the payload data of theEthernet MAC frame 550. These inverse operations are described in theabove referenced OBSAI standards documents. The corresponding compresseddata packets are input to decompressors 125 i and 135 i.

For example, a 10 msec. OBSAI frame accommodates 38,400 chips for W-CDMAsignals. For data rates of 768 Mbps, 1536 Mbps, and 3072 Mbps and 8b10bencoding, the user data transferred during 10 msec. have 6.144 Mbits,12.288 Mbits, and 24.576 Mbits. Each antenna-carrier uses 3.84 MHz*32bits*1.25=153.6 Mbps of link bandwidth. Thus, a 768 Mbps link can carry4 antenna-carriers (16 bits I, 16 bits Q). For a compression ratio of2:1, the 768 Mbps link will carry 8 antenna-carriers.

Since OBSAI supports the Ethernet data type, compressed data packets canbe mapped into Ethernet frames that are then mapped to RP3 messages. Forthe BTS connected to multiple RRUs, the RP3-01 protocol specifiesmapping Ethernet MAC frames to consecutive RP3 messages along withcontrol data. Ethernet MAC frame sizes are between 64 bytes and 1518bytes, with 14 bytes for the header and payload sizes between 46 bytesand 1500 bytes. FIG. 6 shows an example of mapping a compressed datapacket to Ethernet MAC frames and then to RP3 messages. At theapplication layer, the compressed data packet 510 is mapped to thepayload portion of an Ethernet MAC frame 550. The contents of theEthernet MAC frame 550 are then mapped to the payload portion of severalRP3 messages 630-1 to 630-n. The functions of multiplexing at thetransport layer, formation of message groups at data link layer and the8b10b encoding at the physical layer proceed as described with respectto FIG. 5. For convenient mapping of compressed data to Ethernet MACframes, the BLOCK_SIZE for compressed data can be any multiple of 4. Thetable in FIG. 7 gives three numerical examples for mapping compresseddata to Ethernet payloads. The bits per sample indicate the number ofbits allotted to each I sample and each Q sample. The assumed BLOCK_SIZEand resulting number of payload bytes per Ethernet MAC frame are listed.For uncompressed samples having 12-bit and 14-bit bits per sample (I orQ), the samples per payload value of 750 assume no bit-packing TheBLOCK_SIZE for compressed data can be selected by a user to achieve adesired Ethernet payload size.

The OBSAI standard also supports custom data types for RP3 messages.Since type values 01111-11111 are not assigned, the user can assign oneof the type values to a custom message that contains compressed data inthe payload portion. Referring to FIG. 5, the type field 524 can beassigned the type value corresponding to the custom message. The usercan specify additional parameters for message groups containing custommessages, including the number of message per message group (M_MG), theminimum number of message groups per frame (N_MG) and the number of idlecodes per message group (K_MG).

The CPRI standard defines a basic frame having a duration of 260.416667nanoseconds, or 1/3.84 MHz. The basic frame includes 16 words, one wordcontains control data and the remaining 15 words, referred to as the IQdata block, contain baseband I,Q signal samples. The word length in bitsdepends on the data transfer rate of the link. The IQ data block size inbits equals 15 times the word length, so capacity of a basic framedepends on the data transfer rate. The specified data transfer rates are614.4 Mbps, 1228.8 Mbps, 2457.6 Mbps and 3072.0 Mbps with respectiveword lengths of 8, 16, 32 and 40 bits. The CPRI standard allows varyingsample widths for signal samples for the downlink (8 to 20 bits persample) and the uplink (4 to 20 bits per sample). The sample width isthe number of bits per sample. Each I,Q signal sample consists of one Isample having the sample width and one Q sample having the same samplewidth. The sample widths are determined at the application layer. Theflexibility of sample width is beneficial for accommodating compressedsamples. The CPRI protocol organizes signal data into packets called AxCcontainers. Each AxC container includes I and Q samples corresponding toone antenna-carrier (AxC). The AxC corresponds to data provided to orreceived via one carrier of one independent antenna element. The AxCcontainer holds the I,Q samples for the duration of one UMTS chip. ForWiMax, the AxC container holds the I,Q samples and sometimes additionalstuffing bits. The AxC containers from several different AxCs aremultiplexed together to form AxC container groups. The AxC containergroups are mapped to the I,Q data block of the basic frame.

FIG. 8 shows an example of mapping compressed data packets for transferaccording to the CPRI protocol. Each compressed data packet 510 from thesame antenna-carrier is mapped to an AxC container 610. The consecutiveAxC containers AC0-1 and AC0-2 correspond to a first antenna-carrier,AxC#0. Each AxC container 611 holds a compressed data packet from asecond AxC, AxC#1. The multiplexer 620 multiplexes the AxC containersfrom the two antenna-carriers to form an AxC container group 625. Thebasic frame formatter 630 forms a basic frame having a number of AxCcontainer groups in the IQ data block and adding the control word. The8b10b encoder 540 applies an 8b10b code to each byte of data in thebasic frame. Referring to FIG. 4, for CPRI systems, the multiplexers 420and 421 perform the functions described with respect to FIG. 8 oncompressed data packets 510 output from each group of compressors 120 iand 130 i. The demultiplexers 440 and 441 perform the inverseoperations, including 8b10b decoding, demultiplexing AxC containers fromthe AxC container groups and extracting the compressed data packets 510from the AxC containers. The CPRI standard supports between 4 and 24AxCs per RE. The CPRI standard also specifies oversampling the receivedanalog signal by factors of 2 to 4 for the UTRA/FDD uplink. Compressingthe oversampled signals reduces signal redundancy. Compression couldenable the use of fewer media connections (cables) between RECs and REs,lowering physical connection costs and allowing existing CPRI links tosupport additional AxCs.

The serial data transfer link 430 can be implemented using several typesof cabling or using wireless transmission. For long distances singlemode or multi-mode fiber optic cabling may be used, while for shorterlinks CAT5/6, other twisted pair cabling, or coax may be used. MultipleRF bands transmitted as digital data streams can be time multiplexed onoptical fiber links.

When the baseband signals are oversampled, compression reduces theredundancy and improves data transfer efficiency. Oversampling isindicated when the number of samples per symbol or chip is greater thanone. The oversampling ratio is the ratio of the sample rate to thesymbol rate or chip rate. When the oversampling ratio is greater thanone, the signal is oversampled. For example, the CPRI standard specifiessampling the received analog signal with an oversampling ratio 2 or 4samples per chip for the UTRA/FDD uplink. For another example, the OBSAIstandard specifies oversampling the uplink WCDMA signal by anoversampling ratio of 2 samples per chip

In many cases, lossy compression can be applied to the signal sampleswhile maintaining system quality metrics. For lossless compression, thedecompressed signal samples are identical to the original signalsamples. For lossy compression, the decompressed signal samples areapproximations of the original signal samples. System quality metricstypically include composite error vector magnitude (cEVM), peak codedomain error (PCDE), spectral emissions mask (SEM), adjacent channelleakage ratio (ALCR), bit error rate (BER) and block error rate (BLER).The oversampling and/or sample widths of the signal samples may begreater than necessary to meet system requirements for signal quality.Lossy compression can provide a greater reduction in data transfercapacity while the important metrics of signal quality are preserved.

In the commonly owned U.S. Pat. No. 7,009,533 B1 (the '533 patent),entitled “Adaptive Compression and Decompression of BandlimitedSignals”, dated Mar. 7, 2006, the present inventor describes algorithmsfor compression and decompression of certain bandlimited signals. Thecompression methods described herein adapts those algorithms for thepresent application to signal samples from the various configurations ofa BTS. The compression method applied depends on characteristics of thesignal samples, including center frequency, sample rate andsignal-to-noise ratio (SNR).

Systems that generate baseband signal samples for transfer over theserial data links include those compatible with OBSAI or CPRI andconfigurations of the general BTS where the signal samples are centeredat 0 Hz. The compression methods applied to baseband signal samplesinclude block floating point encoding and computing first or higherorder derivatives of the signal samples followed by block floating pointencoding. Huffman or other types of encoding can be alternatives toblock floating point encoding. For signal samples that are sampled atone sample per chip or symbol, the preferred method is block floatingpoint encoding of the signal samples. For example, the OBSAI compatibleW-CDMA signal samples for downlink from the baseband module to the RFunit have one sample per chip. The block floating point encoding isapplied to the I samples and, independently, to the Q samples, to formthe compressed samples.

The preferred block floating point encoding has the following steps forBLOCK_SIZE samples, each BLOCK_SIZE divided into groups of N_groupsamples:

For the first group of samples, where S is the original number of bitsper sample:

-   -   1) Determine the exponent (base 2) for the sample with the        maximum magnitude, such as by calculating the log₂ of the        maximum magnitude. This indicates the number of bits per encoded        sample in the group, or n_exp(0).    -   2) Absolute encode the exponent n_exp(0) of the first group        using S bits.    -   3) Encode the N_group samples using n_exp(0) bits per sample.

For the i^(th) group of N_group samples

-   -   4) Determine the i^(th) exponent (base 2) for the sample with        the maximum magnitude, which indicates the number of bits per        encoded sample in the i^(th) group, or n_exp(i);    -   5) Differentially encode the i^(th) exponent by subtracting        n_exp(i) from n_exp (i-1) to determine the first token in the        i^(th) group of encoded samples.    -   6) Encode the i^(th) group of N_group samples using n_exp(i)        bits per sample.

For the first group of samples in the BLOCK_SIZE samples, the exponentn_exp(0) is absolute encoded. For example, the exponent n_exp(0) can beencoded as follows, where S is the original number of bits per sample:

a. 0: n_exp(0)=0 (all 4 sample values are zero)

b. 1: n_exp(0)=2 (2 bits per sample)

c. 2: n_exp(0)=3 (3 bits per sample)

d. etc. until S−1: n_exp(0)=S (S bits per sample)

For the i^(th) group, the exponent n_exp(i) is differentially encodedusing a prefix code, where no codeword is the prefix of anothercodeword. The preferred differential encoding is as follows:

-   -   1. Calculate difference: e_diff=n_exp(i)−n_exp(i−1)    -   2. Encode e_diff as follows:        -   a. 0: e_diff=e(i)−e(i−1)        -   b. 101: e_diff=+1        -   c. 110: e_diff=−1        -   d. 1001: e_diff=+2        -   e. 1110: e_diff=−2        -   f. Etc.

Another compression alternative for baseband signal samples iscalculating differences followed by encoding. Calculating first orhigher order differences of the signal samples can result in differencesamples having smaller magnitudes than the original signal samples.Encoding the difference samples can result in greater compression thanencoding the samples themselves. Calculating the differences ofconsecutive samples in each BLOCK_SIZE number of samples is followed byblock floating point encoding of the difference samples, as describedabove. Alternatively, Huffman encoding or other encoding can be appliedto the difference samples.

Compression can also include reducing the amplitudes of signal samples.This is a form of lossy compression. Attenuating the signal samples byan attenuation factor reduces the effective sample width. The attenuatedsignal samples can be encoded by block floating point or other encoding.Alternatively, the first or higher order differences of the attenuatedsignal samples can be calculated prior to encoding. For decompression,the amplitudes of the decompressed samples can be increased by theinverse of the attenuation to restore the original sample width.

The optimum compression for the wireless communication signals thatmeets system quality requirements for the BTS can be determined inadvance. The compression alternatives can include lossless and lossycompression. Control parameters based on the modulation type, samplerate (or oversampling ratio), bandwidth and sample width can be used toconfigure the compression and decompression operations. The controlparameters for the various types of signals served by the BTS can bedetermined by testing. The control parameters can then be set based onthe modulation type. For example, in the OBSAI standard the type fieldin the RP3 message indicates the signal type, or modulation type. Sincethe OBSAI standard specifies the sample rate and sample width based onthe modulation type, a compression/decompression controller can use thetype information to select the corresponding control parameters for thecompressor/decompressor. The user can also select lossless or lossymodes. For instance, selecting an attenuation parameter for reducing theamplitudes of the signal samples will result in lossy compression. Theuser can also select a fixed-rate lossy mode, where the bit rate of thecompressed samples is constant.

FIGS. 9 a and 9 b show block diagrams of the compressors 120 i and 130 iof FIG. 4. The compressor 120 i receives input from the basebandprocessor 410 and the compressor 130 i receives input from the DDC 471.The compressors 120 i/130 i include the respective compressioncontrollers 126/136 that provide control parameters for the respectivedifference operators 122/132 and encoders 124/134. The application layerfor the base station processor and the RF unit includes the airinterface applications for the types of wireless signals. For example,in the OBSAI standard, the application layer determines the signal type,or modulation type, and encodes it for the type field of the RP3message. The compression operations of the present invention are addedto the conventional operations of the application layer, so informationon the modulation type is available to the compression controllers126/136. The compression controllers 126/136 use the modulation typeinformation to determine control parameters for the respectivedifference operators 122/132 and encoders 124/134. The controlparameters for the difference operators 122/132 can select first, secondor higher order differences, or bypass the difference operations. Thecontrol parameter for the encoders 124/134 can indicate parameters forthe block floating point encoder, such as number of bits S, the groupsize and BLOCK_SIZE.

FIGS. 10 a and 10 b are block diagrams of the decompressors 125 i and135 i of FIG. 4. The decoders 127/137 invert the operations of theencoders 124/134 to form decoded samples. For example, the decoders127/137 perform block floating point decoding, Huffman decoding or otherdecoding. The integration operators 129/139 add the decoded differencesamples to invert the first or higher order differencing performed forcompression. If differencing was not performed for compression, theintegration operators 129/139 would be bypassed. The decompressioncontrollers 123/133 provide control parameters to the respectivedecoders 127/129 and integration operators 129/139. The decompressioncontrollers 123/133 can extract control data from the header of thecompressed data packet to determine the control parameters. Thedecompression controllers 123/133 can also use modulation typeinformation to determine the appropriate decompression configuration.The modulation type information can be included in the header. For OBSAIthe modulation type can be determined from the type field of the RP3messages.

The compression and decompression described above can also be applied tosignal samples having non-zero center frequencies. For example, thecompressors 120/130 and decompressors 125/135 of FIGS. 1 a and 1 b forthe general BTS architecture can apply block floating point encoding ordifferencing followed by encoding, as described above, to signal samplescentered at IF or RF. Compression can also include attenuating thesignal samples as described above. However, the alternative compressionalgorithms described below may achieve better compression for signalsamples having non-zero center frequencies. The sample rate isrepresented by f_(S) and the sample interval is the inverse of thesample rate, 1/f_(S). The signal samples can represent multiple channelsof signal data centered at an RF or converted to an IF in a block, orband, of frequencies. The compressors 120/130 and decompressors 125/135process the block of frequencies as a unit.

FIG. 11 gives examples that illustrate principles underlyingalternatives for compressing signal samples with different centerfrequencies. Beginning with the example of a baseband signal,corresponding to row labeled “Band 1” in FIG. 11, the center frequencyis near DC (0 Hz) and the phase increase between consecutive samples isless than 10 degrees. The first phasor diagram 710 shows that since thephase changes between consecutive samples are small, the magnitudes ofthe differences of consecutive samples will be relatively small comparedto the magnitudes of the samples themselves. The first example sequence712 corresponds to samples of a Band 1 baseband signal. Since thedifferences between consecutive samples are small relative to the samplemagnitudes, calculating first or higher order differences, ordifferential encoding, creates difference samples with smaller datawidths than the original samples. Compression using differentialencoding approach is effective for the baseband (Band 1) example. Thiscorresponds with the compression approach described with respect toFIGS. 9 a and 9 b for baseband signal samples.

FIG. 11 also gives examples of sampled signals where the centerfrequency is above DC, but below the Nyquist frequency, f_(S)/2. ForBand 2, the center frequency is near f_(S)/6 and the phase increasebetween consecutive samples is about 60 degrees. The second phasordiagram 720 shows that pairs of samples separated by 180 degrees, orthree sample intervals, have similar magnitudes but opposite polarities,as illustrated by pairs of samples (720-0, 720-3), (720-1, 720-4) and(720-2, 720-5). Inverting one of the samples in the pair [or multiplyingby (−1)] provides a close estimate of the other sample in the pair. Thesecond example sequence 722 also shows that samples separated by threesample intervals have similar magnitudes and opposite signs. Forexample, the value of sample 722-0 is 32767 and the value of sample722-3 is −32756. For Band 2, operations on pairs of samples separated bythree sample intervals produce modified samples with smaller datawidths. The operation of adding the samples in the pair togetherproduces modified samples having smaller data widths that can be encodedmore efficiently.

For the example of Band 3 in FIG. 11, the center frequency is nearf_(S)/4 and the phase increase between consecutive samples is about 90degrees. The third phasor diagram 730 shows that samples separated by180 degrees, or 2 sample intervals, have similar magnitude and oppositepolarity. The third example sequence 732 also shows that every othersample has similar magnitudes and opposite polarities. For Band 3,adding together every other sample will result in modified samples withsmaller data widths that can be encoded more efficiently than theoriginal samples.

For the example of Band 4 in FIG. 11, the center frequency is nearf_(S)/3 and the phase increase between consecutive samples is about 120degrees. The fourth phasor diagram 740 shows that samples separated by360 degrees, or 3 sample intervals, will have similar magnitudes. Thefourth example sequence 742 shows that every third sample has similarmagnitudes. In this case, forming a difference between samples separatedby 3 sample intervals will give a modified sample with a smaller datawidth that can be encoded more efficiently than the original samples.

For the example of Band 5 in FIG. 11, the center frequency is f_(S)/2and the phase increase between consecutive samples is about 180 degrees.The fifth phasor diagram 750 shows that samples separated by 180degrees, or one sample interval, will have similar magnitudes butopposite polarities. The fifth example sequence 752 shows consecutivesamples have similar magnitudes and opposite polarities. In this case,adding two consecutive samples will form a modified sample with asmaller data width that can be encoded more efficiently than theoriginal samples.

The above examples described for FIG. 11 show that magnitude reductioncan be achieved by performing operations such as addition (or inversionfollowed by subtraction) or subtraction (or inversion followed byaddition) on signal samples that are separated by 1, 2 or 3 sampleintervals, depending on the ratio of the sample rate to the centerfrequency. The resulting modified samples are then encoded to formcompressed samples. Similar operations can be applied to samples thatare separated by four or more sample intervals, depending on the ratioof the center frequency to the sample rate, to produce modified sampleswith smaller data widths than the original signal samples.

FIG. 12 is a block diagram of a compression algorithm based on thecenter frequency of the signal samples. The ADC 170 or the base stationprocessor 100 provide I and Q signal samples to the respectivecompressors 120 or 130. The reorder demux 810 selects signal samples sothat selected samples are separated by the appropriate number of sampleintervals according to compression control parameter 852 to formdemultiplexer output 812. Arithmetic operator 830 performs addition orsubtraction operations on pairs of demultiplexer output samples 812according to compression control parameter 856 to form modified samples832. Arithmetic operator 830 can also be configured to perform higherorder differences on the demultiplexer output samples 812. The encoder840 encodes the modified samples 832 to form compressed signal samples.The encoder 840 applies block floating point encoding, Huffman encodingor other encoding. The compressed signal samples are packed andformatted for transfer over the serial data link 140.

The compression controller 860 provides control parameters to thecompressor elements based on the ratio of the sample rate to the centerfrequency of the signal samples. The reorder demux 810 and arithmeticoperator 830 respond to the compression control parameters 852 and 856,respectively, to perform the appropriate operations. FIG. 13 shows theoperations that produce modified samples 832 based on the centerfrequency. The first column 871 gives the possible center frequenciesfor this example. The second column 872 gives a corresponding frequencyband indicator for each center frequency. The indicators can be used asparameters for compression control parameters 852 and 856. The thirdcolumn 873 gives the different separations of samples x(i) and x(i-j) atreorder demux output 812 that would be produced in accordance withcompression control parameter 852. The fourth column 874 shows theresult of selecting the arithmetic operations of addition or subtractionin accordance with compression control parameter 856. When the inverteris “on” the delayed sample, x(i-j) is subtracted. The fifth column 875shows the mathematical results of the arithmetic operator 830 thatproduce the modified samples 832, or y(i). The compression controller860 also provides control of the encoder 840. The compression controlparameter 858 can indicate a parameter for block floating point encodingor other encoding technique.

FIG. 14 gives the sums or differences of signal samples x(i) and x(i-j)for the examples of FIG. 11 calculated as described with respect to ofFIGS. 12 and 13 for different center frequencies. The example sequencesof signal samples are the same as those of FIG. 11. The samples in theDIFF rows in example sequences 912 and 942 and the SUM rows in examplesequences 922, 932 and 952 have substantially lower magnitudes than thecorresponding signal samples, or x(i). The DIFF samples and the SUMsamples are examples of modified samples 832 that are input to encoder840 in FIG. 12.

For example, consider a multicarrier signal comprising four 5 MHzchannels for a total bandwidth of 20 MHz. The 20 MHz multicarrier signalis centered at an IF of 30.72 MHz and is sampled at a sample rate(f_(S)) of 122.88 MHz. The IF corresponds to f_(S)/4 so that themodified samples are represented by the equation,y(i)=x(i)+x(i−2)  (1)

as indicated in FIG. 13. Referring to FIG. 12, the reorder demux 810rearranges the samples into two sequences, one with the odd-indexedsamples and one with the even-indexed samples, so the samples in eachsequence are separated by two sample intervals. The arithmetic operator830 adds the samples in each sequence in accordance with equation (1) toform the modified samples 832. The encoder 440 applies block floatingpoint encoding to the modified samples to form the compressed samples.

The compressed samples are packed to form compressed data packets thatinclude control data in a header, as described above. The compressedpackets can be further formatted in accordance with a protocol fortransfer over the serial data link 140. The serial data link 140 can bea custom link or an industry standard link. Depending on the type oflink, formatting operations can include 8b10b encoding, insertion intoEthernet MAC frame or other formatting.

FIG. 15 is a block diagram of the operations performed by thedecompressors 125/135. The compressed packets are received by thedecoder 910 from the data link 140. The decoder 910 unpacks and performsdecoding operations, for instance block floating point decoding, on thecompressed data, to form decoded modified samples. The inversearithmetic operator 920 performs the inverse operations to thearithmetic operator 830 to reconstruct the signal samples from thedecoded modified samples. The multiplexer 930 restores the originalorder of the decompressed signal samples. At the RF unit, thedecompressed signal samples are converted to an analog signal andprocessed for transmission. At the base station processor, the normalsignal processing operations are applied to decompressed signal samples.

The compression methods described above can be configured to producelossless or lossy compression. Depending on system parameters, it can bepossible to obtain the specified bit error rates (BER), or other qualitymetric, for data transfer when lossy compression is applied to thesignal samples. Lossy compression can provide additional resourcesavings within the BER limitation. One approach for lossy encoding is toreduce the data width, or dynamic range, of the samples to becompressed. A programmable attenuator can attenuate the signal samplesto reduce the data width prior to the other compression operations ofcompressors 120/130 and 120 i/130 i. Alternatively, programmableshifters can shift out one or more least significant bits from thesignal samples, also reducing the data width. In another alternative,arithmetic operator 830 or encoder 840 can eliminate one or more leastsignificant bits. Each of these alternatives for lossy encoding can becontrolled by the compression controller 860. Additional alternativesfor control of lossless and lossy compression can be based on a desiredbit rate for compressed signal samples or a desired signal quality, suchas SNR or BER, of the decompressed signal.

In the examples of FIGS. 1 through 4, the BTS includes compression anddecompression on both the forward link from the base station processorto the RF unit and the reverse link from the RF unit to the base stationprocessor. Alternative embodiments include providing compression anddecompression in one direction only. For the forward link, or down link,only the base station processor includes a compressor and only the RFunit includes a decompressor. For the reverse link, or up link, only theRF unit includes a compressor and only the base station processorincludes a decompressor.

Implementation alternatives for the compressor and decompressor includeprogrammable processors and application specific integrated circuits(ASIC). The programmable processors include software/firmwareprogrammable processors such as computers, digital signal processors(DSP), microprocessors (including microcontrollers) and otherprogrammable devices, and hardware programmable devices such as complexprogrammable logic devices (CPLD), field programmable gate arrays(FPGA). Depending on the type of programmable processor, the programimplementing the compression and decompression operations arerepresented by software, firmware, netlist, bitstream or other type ofprocessor executable instructions and data. Subsystems that implementthe compressor and decompressor can be integrated into devices thatperform other functions of the RF unit or base station processor.Implementations of compression or decompression can be performed in realtime, that is, at least as fast as the sample rate of the ADC or DAC.Compression and decompression operations include multiplexingoperations, inversion operations and simple arithmetic operationsincluding addition, subtraction and shifting.

While the preferred embodiments of the invention have been illustratedand described, it will be clear that the invention is not limited tothese embodiments only. Numerous modifications, changes, variations,substitutions and equivalents will be apparent to those skilled in theart, without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, asdescribed in the claims.

1. In a base transceiver system of a wireless communication network, amethod for transferring communication data for transmission to wirelesssubscribers, including generating signal samples of a plurality ofbaseband antenna-carrier channels in a baseband processor for transferto a radio frequency (RF) unit over a serial data link, the plurality ofbaseband antenna-carrier channels including at least one particularbaseband antenna-carrier channel comprised of signal samples for acomposite of signals to be transmitted to multiple wireless subscribers,each signal sample associated with one of the plurality of basebandantenna-carrier channels, wherein each signal sample includes anin-phase (I) sample and a quadrature (Q) sample, the RF unit including adigital up converter (DUC) that upconverts a sequence of signal samplesof the plurality of baseband antenna-carrier channels to a plurality ofupconverted antenna-carrier channels to form a single upconverteddigital signal comprised of upconverted signal samples from theplurality of upconverted antenna-carrier channels, and a digital toanalog converter (DAC) that converts the upconverted digital signal toan analog signal, wherein the RF unit is coupled to an antenna totransmit the analog signal, the analog signal representing the pluralityof upconverted antenna-carrier channels, the method comprising:compressing the signal samples corresponding to each basebandantenna-carrier channel, including the at least one particular basebandantenna-carrier channel, to form compressed samples in accordance with acompression control parameter wherein each compressed sample includes acompressed I sample and a compressed Q sample, wherein the compressedsamples for the particular baseband antenna-carrier channel representthe composite of signals to be transmitted to the multiple wirelesssubscribers; formatting the compressed samples for transfer over theserial data link; transferring the compressed samples over the serialdata link to the RF unit; receiving the compressed samples at the RFunit; and decompressing the compressed samples in accordance with adecompression control parameter to form decompressed signal samplescorresponding to each baseband antenna-carrier channel, wherein eachdecompressed sample includes a decompressed I sample and a decompressedQ sample, wherein the decompressed signal samples for the at least oneparticular baseband antenna-carrier channel reconstruct the composite ofsignals to be transmitted to the multiple wireless subscribers, andwherein the decompressed signal samples are provided to the DUC forforming the upconverted digital signal.
 2. The method of claim 1,wherein the step of compressing further comprises: applying blockfloating point encoding to the signal samples to form the compressedsamples.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of compressingfurther comprises: calculating first or higher order differences of thesignal samples to form a sequence of difference samples in accordancewith the compression control parameter; and encoding the differencesamples to form the compressed samples.
 4. The method of claim 3,wherein the step of encoding includes block floating point encoding. 5.The method of claim 1, wherein the compression control parameter isbased on one or more characteristics of the signal samples.
 6. Themethod of claim 5, wherein the characteristic includes at least one of asample rate, a sample width, a bandwidth and a modulation type of thesignal samples.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein the step ofcompressing is performed in a compression subsystem implemented inprogrammable processor, a field programmable gate array (FPGA) or anapplication specific integrated circuit (ASIC) of the basebandprocessor.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein the steps of formatting,transferring and receiving are performed in accordance with one of thefollowing industry standards: an Open Base Station ArchitectureInitiative (OBSAI) standard; and a Common Public Radio Interface (CPRI)standard.
 9. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of formattingfurther comprises: mapping a sequence of the compressed samplescorresponding to each baseband antenna-carrier channel to a sequence ofdata structures, to form a plurality of sequences of data structures forthe plurality of baseband antenna-carrier channels; and multiplexing theplurality of sequences of data structures corresponding to the pluralityof baseband antenna-carrier channels to form a sequence of multiplexeddata structures representing the compressed samples for the step oftransferring.
 10. The method of claim 9, wherein the step of mappingfurther comprises: mapping the sequence of the compressed samplescorresponding to each baseband antenna-carrier channel to a sequence ofEthernet MAC frames; and mapping the sequence of Ethernet MAC frames tothe sequence of data structures corresponding to each basebandantenna-carrier channel.
 11. The method of claim 9, wherein the datastructures are formed in accordance with one of the following: an OpenBase Station Architecture Initiative (OBSAI) standard, wherein the datastructures are in accordance with a Reference Point 3(RP3) messageprotocol; and a Common Public Radio Interface (CPRI) standard whereinthe data structures are in accordance with an antenna-carrier (AxC)container protocol.
 12. The method of claim 2, wherein the step ofdecompressing further comprises: applying block floating point decodingto the compressed samples to form the decompressed signal samples inaccordance with the decompression control parameter.
 13. The method ofclaim 3, wherein the step of decompressing further comprises: decodingthe compressed samples to form decoded difference samples; andintegrating the decoded difference samples to form the decompressedsignal samples.
 14. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of decodingfurther comprises applying block floating point decoding.
 15. The methodof claim 1, wherein the step of decompressing is performed in adecompression subsystem implemented in a programmable processor, a fieldprogrammable gate array (FPGA), an application specific integratedcircuit (ASIC) of the RF unit.
 16. The method of claim 9, wherein thestep of receiving further comprises the following steps: demultiplexingthe sequence of multiplexed data structures to reconstruct the pluralityof sequences of data structures corresponding to the plurality ofbaseband antenna-carrier channels; and extracting the sequence of thecompressed samples from the sequence of data structures corresponding toeach baseband antenna-carrier channel.
 17. The method of claim 10,wherein the step of receiving further comprises the following steps:demultiplexing the sequence of multiplexed data structures toreconstruct the plurality of data structures corresponding to eachbaseband antenna-carrier channel; reconstructing the plurality ofEthernet MAC frames from the plurality of data structures; andextracting the compressed samples corresponding to each basebandantenna-carrier channel from the corresponding plurality of Ethernet MACframes.
 18. The method of claim 1, wherein the base transceiver systemincludes a plurality of RF units in communication with the basebandprocessor via a plurality serial data links in a distributed antennasystem, wherein the baseband processor transfers the compressed samplesover the corresponding serial data link to each RF unit, each RF unitapplying the step of decompressing to the compressed samples receivedfrom the baseband processor to form corresponding decompressed signalsamples, wherein each RF unit provides the corresponding decompressedsignal samples to the DUC to form the upconverted digital signal.
 19. Ina base transceiver system of a wireless communication network, includinga radio frequency (RF) unit coupled to an antenna to transmit an analogsignal and a baseband processor coupled to the RF unit by a serial datalink, the baseband processor providing a plurality of signal samples fora plurality of baseband antenna-carrier channels derived fromcommunication data for transmission to wireless subscribers, each signalsample associated with one of the plurality of baseband antenna-carrierchannels, wherein each signal sample includes an in-phase (I) sample anda quadrature (Q) sample, the plurality of baseband antenna-carrierchannels including at least one particular baseband antenna-carrierchannel comprised of signal samples for a composite of signals to betransmitted to multiple wireless subscribers, the RF unit including adigital up converter (DUC) that upconverts the signal samples of theplurality of baseband antenna-carrier channels to a plurality ofupconverted antenna-carrier channels to form a single upconverteddigital signal and a digital to analog converter (DAC) that converts theupconverted digital signal to the analog signal, the analog signalrepresenting the plurality of upconverted antenna-carrier channels, anapparatus for data transfer from the baseband processor to the RF unit,comprising: a plurality of compressors, each compressor compressingsignal samples of a corresponding baseband antenna-carrier channel inaccordance with a compression control parameter to form compressedsamples, wherein each compressed sample includes a compressed I sampleand a compressed Q sample, one of the plurality of compressorscompressing signal samples of the at least one particular basebandantenna-carrier channel, and wherein the compressed samples for theparticular baseband antenna-carrier channel represent the composite ofsignals to be transmitted to the multiple wireless subscribers; aformatter coupled to the plurality of compressors and formatting thecompressed samples in accordance with a data transfer protocol; theserial data link coupled to the formatter for transferring thecompressed samples to the RF unit; the RF unit coupled to the serialdata link to receive the compressed samples; and a plurality ofdecompressors at the RF unit, each decompressor receiving the compressedsamples of the corresponding baseband antenna-carrier channel andforming decompressed signal samples, wherein each decompressed signalsample includes a decompressed I sample and a decompressed Q sample,wherein the decompressed signal samples for the at least one particularbaseband antenna-carrier channel reconstruct the composite of signals tobe transmitted to the multiple wireless subscribers, and wherein thedecompressed signal samples are provided to the DUC for forming theupconverted digital signal.
 20. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein thecompressor further comprises: a block floating point encoder applied tothe signal samples to produce the compressed samples.
 21. The apparatusof claim 19, wherein the compressor further comprises: a differenceoperator that calculates first or higher order differences of the signalsamples to form a sequence of difference samples in accordance with thecompression control parameter; and an encoder applied to the differencesamples to produce the compressed samples.
 22. The apparatus of claim21, wherein the encoder further comprises: a block floating pointencoder applied to the difference samples to produce the compressedsamples.
 23. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the compression controlparameter is based on one or more characteristics of the signal samples.24. The apparatus of claim 23, wherein the characteristic includes atleast one of a sample rate, a sample width, a bandwidth and a modulationtype of the signal samples.
 25. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein theplurality of compressors is implemented in a programmable processor, afield programmable gate array (FPGA) or an application specificintegrated circuit (ASIC) in a compression subsystem of the basebandprocessor.
 26. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the base transceiversystem is compatible with one of the following industry standards: anOpen Base Station Architecture Initiative (OBSAI) standard; and a CommonPublic Radio Interface (CPRI) standard.
 27. The apparatus of claim 19,wherein the formatter further comprises: a plurality of mappers, eachmapper receiving a sequence of the compressed samples from acorresponding compressor and mapping the sequence of the compressedsamples to a sequence of data structures, the plurality of mappersproducing a plurality of sequences of data structures corresponding tothe plurality of baseband antenna-carrier channels; and a multiplexerthat combines the plurality of sequences of data structures to form asequence of multiplexed data structures representing the compressedsamples of the plurality of baseband antenna-carrier channels, whereinthe multiplexer provides the sequence of multiplexed data structures tothe serial data link.
 28. The apparatus of claim 27, wherein the mapperfurther comprises: an Ethernet frame mapper that maps the sequence ofthe compressed samples to a sequence of Ethernet MAC frames; and asecond mapper that maps the sequence of Ethernet MAC frames to thesequence of data structures.
 29. The apparatus of claim 27, wherein thedata structures are formed in accordance with one of the following: anOpen Base Station Architecture Initiative (OBSAI) standard, wherein thedata structures are formed in accordance with a Reference Point 3(RP3)message protocol; and a Common Public Radio Interface (CPRI) standardwherein the data structures are formed in accordance with anantenna-carrier (AxC) container protocol.
 30. The apparatus of claim 20,wherein the decompressor further comprises: a block floating pointdecoder applied to the compressed samples to produce the decompressedsignal samples.
 31. The apparatus of claim 21, wherein the decompressorfurther comprises: a decoder applied to the compressed samples toproduce decoded difference samples; and an integration operator appliedto the decoded difference samples to form the decompressed signalsamples.
 32. The apparatus of claim 31, wherein the decoder furthercomprises a block floating point decoder applied to the compressedsamples.
 33. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the decompressor isimplemented in a field programmable gate array (FPGA), an applicationspecific integrated circuit (ASIC) or a programmable processor in adecompression subsystem of the RF unit.
 34. The apparatus of claim 27,wherein the RF unit further comprises: a demultiplexer that receives thesequence of multiplexed data structures representing the compressedsamples and reconstructs the plurality of sequences of data structurescorresponding to the plurality of baseband antenna-carrier channels; anda plurality of demappers, each demapper receiving a correspondingsequence of data structures from the demultiplexer and extracting thesequence of the compressed samples of the corresponding basebandantenna-carrier channel, wherein the plurality of demappers provides theplurality of sequences of the compressed samples to the plurality ofdecompressors.
 35. The apparatus of claim 28, further comprising: ademultiplexer that receives the sequence of multiplexed data structuresrepresenting the compressed samples and reconstructs the plurality ofsequences of data structures corresponding to plurality of basebandantenna-carrier channels; a plurality of Ethernet frame demappers, eachEthernet frame demapper receiving a corresponding sequence of datastructures from the demultiplexer and reconstructing the sequence ofEthernet MAC frames of the corresponding baseband antenna-carrierchannel; and a plurality of demappers, each demapper receiving thecorresponding sequence of Ethernet MAC frames and extracting thesequence of the compressed samples of the corresponding basebandantenna-carrier channel, wherein the plurality of demappers provides theplurality of sequences of the compressed samples to the plurality ofdecompressors.
 36. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein a first serialdata link couples the baseband processor to an intermediate hub, theintermediate hub being coupled by a second serial data link to anotherhub or to the RF unit, wherein the intermediate hub transfers thecompressed samples from the first serial data link to the second serialdata link.
 37. The apparatus of claim 19, wherein the base transceiversystem includes a plurality of the RF units coupled to communicate via aplurality of serial data links with the baseband processor to form adistributed antenna system, each RF unit including the plurality ofdecompressors to decompress corresponding compressed samples receivedfrom the baseband processor and providing the corresponding decompressedsignal samples to the DUC for forming the upconverted digital signal.